In the GTA’s tow-truck turf wars, the race for profit leads to road rage, violence and intimidation

“For more than a year, a violent tow truck war has been raging across the Greater Toronto Area, erupting in fist fights at crash scenes and trucks being driven off the road as operators compete for bigger slices of the lucrative business. Dozens of trucks have been set on fire, and at least two men tied to the industry have been killed – one as he stood in front of his mother’s Scarborough home. The feuding shows no signs of abating, with at least two arsons reported in York Region during the first week of February alone.”

 

Molly Hayes – The Globe and Mail – February 2020

Stay Tacky, Niagara Falls

“It was on a chintzy patch of street in Niagara Falls called Clifton Hill that I was first alerted to the possibility that civilization was a mistake. There, in the shadow of an enormous sculpture of Frankenstein’s monster eating a branded Burger King Whopper sandwich, my underage mind muddied on enormous schooners of beer procured with a fake ID from an adjacent Boston Pizza, I watched two other drunk loafers come to blows in that messy, soused, all-Canadian way—where they sort of thrash each other and toss out soft punches, which roll off buttery cheeks gone red with drunkenness, the brawl resolving when one combatant attempts to jersey the other by pulling his shirt over his head like they’re in a hockey fight.”

John Semley – The Walrus – February 2020

The power of Paul Bissonnette

“As he devours his order – filet mignon cooked to medium with two salad appetizers – Bissonnette’s frenetic mind jumps from one subject to the next: hockey, politics, sex, hockey. When I ask if we can dig into an interview, he demurs. There’s lots of time. We can get to the questions in my notebook later. ‘We have a big few days ahead,’ he says.”

Jamie Ross – The Globe and Mail – February 2020

Hero with a secret

“It was one of dozens of interviews given by Fort McMurray fire Chief Darby Allen as wildfires raged over the spring and summer of 2016 and the northern Alberta city was evacuated. A 24-hour news channel hummed like white noise as Liz, five months pregnant at the time, puttered around her kitchen. Before she saw his face, Liz heard Allen’s voice and began to cry. ‘It just brought me back to a time when I was very young and naive and destroyed.'”

 

Meghan Grant – CBC Calgary – February 2020

Testing the Waters

“Still committed to the cause, Jesse tweets out pictures of their attempt to avoid oil-based products like plastic. Boe celebrates the effort on Facebook. ‘Hope you walked and didn’t drive your car,’ someone comments, snarkily. Boe fires back: ‘Can I walk around naked then? Because even our clothing is made using oil.'”

Lauren Kaljur – Maisonneuve – February 2020

The Search for Mackie Basil

“‘Goodbye, bro. I love you,’ Mackie called back to him. In that moment, now frozen in his memory, Peter watched Mackie walk away, lingering at the door as she climbed the path. He spotted a man waiting for her farther up the trail. Something was not quite right, though. Why, Peter asked himself, would Mackie have said goodbye in such a way if she were coming home? Then he wondered if, perhaps, this would be the last time he’d see her.”

Annie Hylton – The Walrus – February 2020

She was a running prodigy. He was the most powerful man in track. How her promising career unravelled

“Mr. Scott-Thomas was in luck: the mysterious prodigy went to St. James Catholic High School, just up the road from his office in Guelph. He’d found his first raw yet pure talent. She would be his to mould. But Ms. Brown did not go on to lead the University of Guelph to a championship. She did not represent Canada at the Olympic Games. Instead, it was the beginning of a relationship that would destroy both Ms. Brown’s and Mr. Scott-Thomas’s careers in running, albeit years apart.”

 

Michael Doyle – The Globe and Mail – February 2020